New York Woman Who Lost Father to COVID Speaks on Cuomo and COVID Nursing Home Deaths

A Syracuse New York woman who is grieving the loss of her father is reacting to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s explanation for how he handled coronavirus death data in nursing homes.

Natalie Walters lost her father, Jack, to both COVID-19 and dementia in December.

He passed away at Loretto Health & Rehabilitation.

“I’m going to try and keep it together for you,” she told Currents News. “I don’t know how anybody can divorce the consequences or the culpability from the actions that were done.”

Cuomo’s aide, Melissa DeRosa, says the Cuomo team “froze” when the Department of Justice was asking for information on nursing home deaths.

That was in August, when state lawmakers were requesting the same data

“He is trying to deflect the responsibility of being governor in our state,” said Natalie. “The governor who kept saying over and over ‘follow the facts’ and when you decide to manipulate facts for your own fortitude, that is suspect to me.”

Currents News read Natalie some of the governor’s words, asking if that was an apology to families like hers.

“Having the bravery to look at a camera and say to the people of New York State, ‘I am so sorry that this has happened to you all,’ or ‘I promise,’ and ‘I will,’ or ‘I hope’ — anything that leads after that would’ve given, I think, all of us a sense of wow we’re not left behind in all of this”

On whether she thinks the circumstances with her father could’ve been different now if it weren’t for how things were handled, she says, “I think had the information been given to us timely that we have found out has been withheld, that perhaps — perhaps — there could’ve been a different ending in this situation. We might not even be talking, you know? My father might still be here.”

Natalie said she repeatedly watched the clip of the governor saying there shouldn’t be an investigation to make sure she heard him correctly, and believes an investigation should be done.

Long Islanders Join Together, Put Christmas Lights Back Up to Honor Neighbor Lost to COVID

By Jessica Easthope

Christmas came and went, but the lights and decorations are still up at Sara Pascucci’s house. That’s because her father, Anthony, put them up, but never got the chance to take them down before he passed away of COVID-19 on January 15.

“He loved Christmas, that was his favorite holiday. On every year, the day after Thanksgiving he would get all his decorations out and put them up and have his Christmas music playing,” Sara said of her late father.

Sara, her brother Anthony Jr. and her aunt who all live on Berkshire Road in Bethpage, Long Island, found comfort in keeping them up for a little while, if it meant keeping her dad’s memory alive. But a few days ago, Sara got an anonymous letter in the mail with a message that shocked her.

“It was mailed anonymously, not even a return address or our names,” Sara said as she held the letter that read, “Take your lights down, it’s Valentine’s Day.”

Sara couldn’t help but take it personally, knowing what her family has been through and knowing how much the decorations meant to her dad.

“We were kind of shocked at first but then it set in and we’re like, ‘This is kind of ridiculous.’ And it hurt and we were upset, and it was something so silly that we didn’t need at this time,” said Sara.

But after posting about it on social media, she found out some of her neighbors got letters too for keeping their lights up too long.

“We were like, ‘This is crazy.’ Everything going on in the world, this is what somebody’s worried about,” said Bree Fazio, Sara’s neighbor.

Bree got her letter after her decorations were stowed away, so what did she do? She headed to the garage and got them right back out.

“We put the decorations back up in honor of that family, and for what Sara and Anthony had gone through,” she said.

Now, several houses on Sara’s block are decking the halls all over again. And with the recent weather, they say their White Christmas re-do is just what they needed.

“I just thought it was a nice way to bring joy to everybody and let everyone know that we’re all kind of in this together,” Sara said.

The block even went as far as giving the anonymous sender some Christmas cheer on Valentine’s Day, holding a car parade down the street.

As for when the Pascuccis will take the merry decor down? Who knows.

“Me and my brother are debating, he wants to keep them up all year,” said Sara.

Whether the decorations come down or not, Anthony’s picture will be in the window.

For Lent, Ask If One’s Life is Centered on God or Oneself, Pope Says

By Carol Glatz

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Lent is a time to reconsider the path one is taking in life and to finally answer God’s invitation to return to him with one’s whole heart, Pope Francis said.

[CLICK HERE to Read the Pope’s Ash Wednesday Homily]

“Lent is not just about the little sacrifices we make, but about discerning where our hearts are directed,” he said, “toward God or toward myself?”

The pope’s remarks came in his homily at Mass Feb. 17 for Ash Wednesday, which included the blessing and distribution ashes, marking the beginning of Lent for Latin-rite Catholics.

Because of ongoing measures in place to reduce the spread of the coronavirus, the Mass and distribution of ashes took place with a congregation of little more than 100 people at the Altar of the Chair in St. Peter’s Basilica.

Pope Francis did not do the traditional walk from the Church of St. Anselm to the Basilica of Santa Sabina on Rome’s Aventine Hill to prevent large crowds of people from gathering along the route.

In St. Peter’s Basilica, the pope received ashes on his head from Cardinal Angelo Comastri, archpriest of the basilica, and he distributed ashes to about three dozen cardinals, as well as the priests and deacons assisting him at the Mass.

In his homily, the pope said one must bow to receive ashes sprinkled on the crown of the head, which reflects the “humble descent” one makes in reflecting on one’s life, sins and relationship with God.

“Lent is a journey of return to God,” especially when most people live each day ignoring or delaying their response to God’s invitation to pray and do something for others.

“It is a time to reconsider the path we are taking, to find the route that leads us home and to rediscover our profound relationship with God, on whom everything depends,” he said.

“The journey of Lent is an exodus from slavery to freedom,” he said, noting the easy temptations along that journey, including yearning for the past, or hindered by “unhealthy attachments, held back by the seductive snares of our sins, by the false security of money and appearances, by the paralysis of our discontents. To embark on this journey, we have to unmask these illusions.”

The way back to God, he said, starts with understanding, like the prodigal son, how “we have ended up with empty hands and an unhappy heart” after squandering God’s gifts “on paltry things, and then with seeking God’s forgiveness through confession.

The pope again reminded confessors that they must be like the father in the story of the prodigal son and not use “a whip,” but open their arms in a welcoming embrace.

“The journey is not based on our own strength. Heartfelt conversion, with the deeds and practices that express it, is possible only if it begins with the primacy of God’s work” and through his grace, the pope said.

What makes people just is not the righteousness they show off to others, “but our sincere relationship with the Father,” after finally recognizing one is not self-sufficient, but in great need of him, his mercy and grace.

The pope asked people to contemplate daily the crucified Christ and see in his wounds, “our emptiness, our shortcomings, the wounds of our sin and all the hurt we have experienced.”

“We see clearly that God points his finger at no one, but rather opens his arms to embrace us,” he said.

It is in life’s most painful wounds, that God awaits with his infinite mercy because it is there “where we are most vulnerable, where we feel the most shame” and where he comes to meet his children again.

“And now,” the pope said, “he invites us to return to him, to rediscover the joy of being loved.”

The Granddaughter of Tuskegee Study Participant Urges COVID-19 Vaccination

Currents News Staff

Sharon Hawks says it has been hard to hear people citing the Tuskegee experiment as one reason they’re reluctant to take a COVID-19 vaccine.

“It has brought up bad emotions,” says Sharon, the Director of Health Outreach for Reid Temple AME Church.

That’s because her own grandfather, a man named Willie Harris, was a part of that experiment until his death in 1960.

“It’s always been a part of the family history,” Sharon said. “We didn’t talk about it much.”

From 1932 until 1972, the Federal Public Health Service used about 600 impoverished sharecroppers in rural Alabama near Tuskegee to study the natural course of syphilis.

They were promised treatment but they were only given placebos. That deceit led to a mistrust of medicine, which for some, continues to this day.

“The fact that they experimented on him for so many years without him even knowing what they were doing is painful,” Sharon said.

But Sharon, who is a nutritionist and director of health outreach for Reid Temple AME church in Glenndale, she’s helping run a new pop-up COVID-19 vaccination clinic. Sharon says she now wants to share her story so the doubt can be overcome.

“I felt it was a moral obligation to let people know and to get them comfortable with it,” she said.

With people lined up and eager to be vaccinated today, she hopes resistance is already fading.

“African Americans can be assured that this is not experimenting or someone trying to kill us off,” she said, “everyone is going after the same vaccine.”

Her grandfather, she says, was denied treatment which could have extended his life. Sharon now hopes people don’t deny themselves a vaccine, which could save theirs.

Catholic High School Student Turns Quarantine Cooking Hobby Into Fundraiser for Rare Diseases

By Emily Drooby

Gabby DiSalvo calls her Instagram page “@cooking.on.wheels.”

Like many, the Xaverian High School student picked up cooking as a new hobby during quarantine.

Now, she’s stirring up success and adding a hefty dash of donations.

Gabby was diagnosed with myofibrillar myopathy, an incredibly rare disease in children. Doctors told her at the time she was born, she was just one of three kids with it.

“The muscles in my entire body, so every single muscle, my hands, my arms, it’s extremely weak,” she told Currents News.

At birth she was told she would never walk, but she found a way.

“Because my muscles are so weak, I would take a step and shift my weight like that, about sixteen times more drastically, so it caused almost like a swaying motion,” she explained while demonstrating.

However, the sway movement caused scoliosis, which led to surgery and made her wheelchair bound.

The muscle weakening that comes with her condition makes it hard to cook. But like with all her other challenges, Gabby found a way. She created adaptations and utilized kitchen tools.

“When I’m cooking, I feel free, I feel so happy,” she said. “I have learned how to basically turn it into something I can do completely on my own, or almost completely on my own. It might not be what you see on TV of the professionals, but I have turned it into what I am capable of doing.”

The Instagram account has taken off. She’s teaching virtual cooking classes, and was even featured on the Rachael Ray Show.

For the past four years, Gabby has raised $25,000 for Global Genes, a non-profit for the over 400 million people affected by rare diseases.

Because of the pandemic, the bake sale and ribbon sale fundraisers she normally has are impossible this year.

Instead, she’s holding a virtual bake-along on Feb. 27, and a cook-along in partnership with her school’s key club on Feb. 28. She already has a $10,000 donation from Rachael Ray.

The link for both of Gabby’s events can be found here:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/zebra-cake-roll-free-online-bake-along-tickets-137896087911

https://www.xaverian.org/student-life/welcome/student-events

Catholic News Headlines for Tuesday, 2/16/21

President Biden takes to the road, trying to sell his COVID relief package.

U.S. bishops are disbanding a committee meant to take on the presidents’s pro-abortion stance.

An immoral experiment where hundreds were lied to and deceived – the effects still being felt today.

How Long Will the COVID Vaccine Immunity Last?

Currents News Staff

In New York, more than 1 million residents are fully vaccinated, but questions and concerns still remain. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says fully vaccinated people can skip quarantine if they’ve been exposed to someone with COVID-19.

Joining Currents News to provide some more answers to COVID questions is Dr. Robert Tiballi, an infectious disease specialist with The Catholic Medical Association.

Biden Prepares for First Presidential Trip, Town Hall on COVID Relief Deal

Currents News Staff

President Biden’s agenda is taking center stage this morning in a Washington no longer consumed by his predecessor’s impeachment trial.

Looking to drum up support for his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, today, Biden is taking his message directly to the public with his first official trip as president to Wisconsin where he’ll make the case for his relief package during a CNN town hall.

On Feb. 17 it’s off to Michigan to a Pfizer vaccine manufacturing plant. Back in Washington, the Biden Administration is still playing catch up on safely reopening more schools and boosting the national vaccine and testing plans.

A group of bipartisan governors sent the president a letter asking for better coordination on distributing vaccines between the federal and state governments, which is an issue Biden noted in a meeting with local leaders at the White House last week.

“What I found when I got here, that what we thought was available in terms of everything from vaccine to vaccinators was not the case,” Biden said. “So I thank them for the work they did in their cities and their states in order to respond to the crisis.”

The president is also still struggling to get Republicans on board with his relief bill.

But with pandemic relief and vaccines on the line, Democrats are growing impatient and ready to move forward without Republican support.

“We are going to rush to get this done, to help deploy more vaccines, to help get kids back into school safely and to provide the other important benefits in this rescue package,” said Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen. “And if Republicans are willing to join us in that effort, we will work with those who want to join us.”

Another major hurdle is a provision to hike the federal minimum wage to $15. It’s a proposal, opposed not only by Senate Republicans, but also two Democrats.

And with enhanced pandemic unemployment benefits scheduled to expire March 14, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders says there’s no time to waste.

“Congress has got to move forward vigorously, do what the president of the United States campaigned on and wants to do,” said Sen. Sanders. “That’s what we’ve got to do. Not only to help the American people, but to restore faith that government in fact can respond to the needs of ordinary Americans.”

Pre-K Programs Are ‘Desperately Needed’ and Must Reopen, Says Queens Council Member Robert Holden

Currents News Staff

New York City decided to cancel more than 100 Universal Pre-K programs, including five at Catholic schools in the Brooklyn Diocese. Sacred Heart Catholic Academy in Glendale was one of those programs. The cancellation news has upset Council Member Robert Holden, who represents the community of Glendale, Queens.

He wrote letters to both Mayor Bill de Blasio and Department of Education Chancellor Richard Carranza expressing his disappointment.

Council Member Holden joined Currents News to discuss what happens now to the Pre-K program.

Yer Man’s Irish Pub in Queens Open Again After 11 Months Without Indoor Dining

By Jessica Easthope

The locks on Yer Man’s Pub are being taken off after nearly a year. Even though it may never be back to what it was like before the pandemic, the weight of the world is off Jimmy O’Reilly’s shoulders.

“It was great. It was fantastic,” said the owner of Yer Man’s Pub, Jimmy, about his first day back on Friday, Feb. 12.

When Jimmy closed his pub in mid-March, from the outside it looked like nothing was going on. Yet on the inside, Jimmy was working – building barriers and partitions by hand, making his bar safe for indoor dining – if and when that day would ever come.

It finally came on Friday, days after an announcement by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

“We’ll open 25% indoor dining, New York City, Friday, before Valentine’s Day,” Gov. Cuomo announced on Feb. 8.

Yer Man’s first big weekend was a success. Jimmy says people are still afraid to come out, but the hard work he did while the bar was closed made it so much safer.

“People have come in here and they feel so safe here because of the barriers and the barriers at the bar,” Jimmy said, “and because the employees are protected, people have said to me ‘I feel so safe coming in here.’”

And customers said there’s nothing better than being back.

“It’s nice to see somebody in person versus talking on the phone or having a Zoom conference,” said Kevin Kehoe, a regular customer at Yer Man’s.

“It’s like the kids going back to school, you need to get out, you need to have a good time and be among friends,” said Lois Mungay, another regular customer.

For 11 months Jimmy’s family business survived on take-out orders. But was hemorrhaging money just to keep the lights on. He said it was almost too late.

“I got the first PPP,” Jimmy said. “I just got the second one, thank God, because it was getting down to the wire. Without it, I would be gone next month, this month maybe.”

But it’s not too late – even in their darkest days, Jimmy and his family knew that if they had the chance, they would make a comeback.

“I feel like no matter what it is going to bounce back, I do feel like the minute people come back in, it’s like right back being at home again,” said Sinead O’Reilly, a waitress and bartender at Yer Man’s, and one of Jimmy’s three daughters. “Like clockwork, everyone jumps back into the same rhythm.”

Jimmy says if he can help it, Yer Man’s will always be a place to come for good food, good drinks and a good time. He says his faith and his bar are two things that won’t fade away.